The Chumash tribe's inheritance

Davy Crockett rides again

Friendly doings with the Indians, unusually

ENOUGH of muskets and tomahawks; today's battles between white settlers and their Indian predecessors are all about property development and casinos. This week, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a deal with five of California's 107 Indian tribes that allows them to expand their slot-machine operations in exchange for a fat bundle of tax revenues: a first payment of $1 billion will go to transport projects. However, the governor, fetchingly draped in a tribal blanket, announced that he would oppose any new attempts to expand casino gambling in the state.

This vow may yet affect an intriguing battle under way just outside Santa Barbara, involving several former Hollywood types and 153 Indians. Back in 1998, Fess Parker, a 79-year old businessman once best known for playing Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on television, bought 1,400 acres of the Santa Ynez Valley for $6m. However, officials in Santa Barbara County rejected his proposal for a hotel and golf course on the land, saying it was zoned for agricultural use only.

Last year, Mr Parker tried unsuccessfully to sell the land for $28m. Then, three months ago, he struck a deal with the local Chumash tribe: the Indians, who number just 153 people and already run one casino, agreed to pay $12m for 745 acres, which they would then annex to their reservation for tribal housing and possibly a golf course, a resort hotel and “market-rate housing”. In addition, the tribe and the Fess Parker Ranch agreed to form a joint-venture to run the project.

The word “casino” was not mentioned, but the mere suspicion that this is the plan has driven what a Chumash spokeswoman calls the “RAWGs” (rich, angry, white guys) to protest against it. The locals, who include Bo Derek and Michael Jackson, worry that a casino would increase traffic and crime. Even if there is no casino, they fear a resort development will spoil the landscape. As for Mr Parker, their view is that he is cleverly avoiding zoning regulations by doing a deal with the Chumash.

In a recent full-page advertisement in a local newspaper, Bernie Taupin, who wrote many of Elton John's better lyrics, declared that “Should this atrocity go ahead, it would surely be the beginning of the end for this pastoral wonderland we cherish. The fight has only just begun. I can guarantee we will snap at Mr Parker's lanky heels till his skin is raw.”

What good that will do remains to be seen. America's Indians are sovereign nations, so the Chumash need seek the permission only of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC, and not the Santa Barbara authorities, in order to annex the land to their reservation. Such requests are almost always approved, especially if the development includes tribal housing and an improvement in the tribe's wealth. Once the land became part of the Chumash reservation, it would be exempt from many state and local regulations, including the present zoning restriction.

As the final points of the land purchase are tied up, the head of the tribe, Vincent Armenta, is doing his best to soothe the local RAWGs. The tribe's plans are preliminary, he insists: “We will listen to the community and respond to their concerns.” And he says there will definitely be no casino, as it would spoil business in their current gaming parlour, which is only two miles away.

To the Chumash, far too much of the opposition is motivated by old-fashioned racism. As Frances Snyder, a tribal spokesman, puts it: “The American dream is OK, but they don't like us having it”—despite handsome contributions to the local community from the profits of the tribe's casino. Meanwhile, Mr Parker says simply: “I am honoured to work with the Chumash tribe to create an environment that they will be proud to call their own, because after all, it was theirs to begin with.”